


Swim Lessons

by Florence_in_Silver



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-23
Updated: 2015-11-23
Packaged: 2018-05-03 00:16:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5269376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Florence_in_Silver/pseuds/Florence_in_Silver
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>During their search for werewolves, Ruby and Mulan decide to take a break from the heat and go swimming.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Swim Lessons

**Author's Note:**

> I may expand this later, but for now I'm leaving it as a one-shot.

The DunBroch sun could be relentless. After a spring of nearly endless rain, the land was entering summer, and with that came a humid heat wave that turned the air thick and sticky. The bugs came, too, with a vengeance, swarming gnats and mosquitos that emitted a constant whining hum. Ruby could feel the sweat dripping from her hairline and down her face. Her red cloak was packed away in the horse’s saddle bag, unneeded until the next full moon. Mulan was even worse off, in her heavy armor, but she wasn’t one to complain or slow down. Ruby always had to be the one to take breaks to drink water or just sit in the shade for a minute.

Still, she was glad of the company. Mulan helped her carry on when she wanted nothing more than to give up the search for werewolves and run back to Storybrooke. And, Mulan could be quite fun, when she was worrying about something or wallowing in sadness.

“Alright, I have to take five. I’m going to turn into a puddle of sweat if we keep going much longer,” said Ruby, as they passed a fallen tree that they could sit and rest on.

Mulan nodded and unstrapped her sword so that she could sit more comfortably. Ruby got their water canteen from the horse’s pack, taking a long swig before passing it to Mulan. They left the horse untied, as he was much more interested in eating grass than running away into the unknown forest.

“Do you think they’ll actually be there? Or just another regular wolfpack?” asked Ruby. This was not the first red herring they had followed in the past two months they had spent together. A man in Merida’s court had talked about a lone wolf that terrorized villages at night in northern DunBroch only to disappear without a trace in the morning. However, when they arrived, they found it was nothing more than a particularly crafty and deranged wolf, who seemed to have been in the early stages of rabies. They had put it down with an arrow and moved on.

This new rumor came from a tavern they had stopped in for a night. The innkeeper liked to tell tales to his customers - bone chilling stories of vampires and goblins that snatched little children. One such story was about a man who, after spending the night with a beautiful and mysterious woman passing through his town, disappeared without a trace. The next day, however, the townspeople noticed a large grey wolf prowling their border. Soon more people began to go missing, and the wolf showed up with several new members in its pack. Finally a merchant came to pawn his wares, but found nothing but wolves, gnawing on corpses. He had escaped, only because the wolves were already full.

 

“It could just be another fantastic bar story, but sometimes they have a grain of truth. The innkeeper probably exaggerated a few details,” said Mulan. 

“Hopefully, the slaughtering the whole village thing was fantasy. But, then again, I’m not one to talk,” said Ruby. Mulan raised her eyebrows a bit, but didn’t comment.

They sat in silence for a minute, swatting at the biting insects and scratching their bites. Ruby supposed that was one great benefit of the armor. The mosquitos couldn’t reach much of Mulan, though it did mean that they targeted Ruby twice as much.

“We should keep going,” said Mulan, getting to her feet. After a moment’s hesitation, she leaned forward and squeezed Ruby’s shoulder. “We’ll find them.”

The continued on for a few minutes when Ruby heard it. After days of scrounging water from tiny creeks and ponds, she could hear the rushing of an honest-to-goodness waterfall. Mulan’s ears weren’t as keen and she had yet to hear it, but she noticed Ruby’s alertness.

“What is it? Do you smell something?” she asked.

“Yeah, let’s go this way,” said Ruby very seriously, steering Mulan off the trail they had been following. Mulan picked up their pace, perceiving some nearby threat was the cause of Ruby’s sudden vigilance. 

Soon, however, the real cause became apparent. Through the trees, a tall and narrow waterfall came into view, looming over them. It spilled over a mossy cliff face into a deep blue pool of water. Just looking at it, Ruby could feel the coolness of the water of her skin and how clean she would be after washing off the sweat and dirt. Mulan was not much of a smiler, but she broke into a wide grin at the sight of it.

“Want to go swimming?” Ruby asked.

“I can’t actually swim, but I’ll watch you from the shallow waters.”

“Maybe I can teach you,” said Ruby.

Mulan looked skeptical and even, if Ruby was not mistaken, a bit nervous. It was a rare look on the normally confident warrior.

“Maybe,” Mulan said.

“Here, help me loosen this corset,” Ruby said, turning and pulling her long hair over her shoulder to keep it out of the way.

Mulan stepped forward, not sure why her hands were shaking slightly. Corsets were not very popular in her kingdom and she fumbled for a while with the strings before finally pulling them loose. Ruby was able to unsnap the front and pull it off, before stripping out of her skirt and blouse, leaving her in just a loose slip. 

“Need help with the armor?” Ruby asked. She turned to catch Mulan staring at her with wide eyes.

“Um, what?” said Mulan, trying hard to maintain eye contact with Ruby.

“Your armor. It looks quite hard to take off.”

“I’ve gotten pretty good at it, but I would be grateful for you help,” said Mulan, somewhat stiffly.

Under Ruby’s confident fingers, the armor came apart piece by piece, each of which she laid carefully in the grass. Ruby couldn’t help smirking at how rigid Mulan had gone, as if she had tensed every muscle in her body. And as the armor was removed, Ruby got a glimpse of just how impressive those muscles were. Mulan’s undergarments reminded Ruby of the boxers and tank tops of Storybrooke, made of plain white fabric. The top was short enough that Mulan’s abs were easily visible and Ruby felt a strange pull to reach out and run her hands up them. She was also surprised to see how many tattoos Mulan had: a phrase written in characters on her inner right forearm, a magnolia blossom on her left shoulder, and a snake-like red dragon across her back. 

“Nice ink,” said Ruby.

“Relics from my army days,” answered Mulan.

They started on the far side of the pool from the waterfall, wading in slowly. The water was warmed somewhat by the constant sunlight, but was still refreshingly cool and crisp. When they were a few feet deep, Ruby ducked under, letting the fresh water wash through her sweaty hair. Underwater, she grabbed Mulan’s ankles and pulled her down.

Mulan coughed a bit when they came up for air and splashed Ruby for revenge. 

“Come on, you can get me back after you learn how to swim,” said Ruby. She took Mulan’s hand and led her out to where the water came up to their chins.

“Let’s try treading water first. You pull your feet up from the bottom, kick your legs. and push down on the water with your arms.” Ruby said, demonstrating the motions as she did so.

Mulan’s first attempt was probably the least graceful thing Ruby had ever seen her do. She thrashed for a second before sinking underwater and eventually standing up. Ruby couldn’t help laughing at her, earning herself another splash of water in the face.

“Keep your movements slow and steady,” Ruby instructed. 

It took the better part of an hour, but eventually Mulan was able to keep her head above water. Her movements were still jerky and she splashed more water than necessary, but she was safe from drowning. 

“Now’s the fun part. Moving forward while you swim.”

Mulan was still reluctant to put her head underwater, so they started with a doggy paddle. Ruby, remembering how her grandmother had taught her, held up Mulan by her forearms while Mulan kicked out with her legs. At one point, they wandered out a little deeper than Mulan was comfortable with, and Mulan had grabbed at Ruby, wrapping her legs around Ruby tightly in fear. Ruby didn’t point out that the water was shallow enough to stand in, but simply held Mulan close, unable to to stop herself from leaning in to press her face into Mulan’s shoulder.

“Such a big, bad warrior,” she teased.

“Shut up,” said Mulan.

***

“So, what’s the story behind the tattoos?” Ruby asked when they took a break to sit in the shallows, tired from the swimming lessons.

“Which one do you want?” 

“All of them.”

“Well, this is a phrase in my language. It means ‘the late bloom is the brightest.’ It’s something my dad used to say. The flower was so I wouldn’t forget who I was in the army. ‘Mulan’ means magnolia flower. I had to take a boy’s name in order to be a soldier, so I wanted to take a piece of my name with me. And the dragon has always been important to my family. We had this great stone statue of one out in our garden. My friend was the army tattoo artist and one of the only people who knew my secret, so he did them for me.”

“I like that quote,” said Ruby. “About the late bloom.”

“Do you have any?”

“No, I’m afraid of needles.”

The air began to cool as the sun started to set, breaking apart the soft, golden light with stretched shadows. Ruby and Mulan got out of the pool to dry themselves on the bank. The wet fabric clung to the them, and this time it was Ruby who struggled to maintain eye contact with Mulan. 

Mulan managed to catch some fish for dinner, which she gutted while Ruby built a fire for them. The nights in DunBroch were nearly as warm as the days, but they usually made a fire to help keep the flies and mosquitos away.

“I must say, I do miss my grandmother’s cooking,” said Ruby, as she picked off pieces of the unflavored fish. It certainly wasn’t the worst meal they had had on their search for the werewolves - DunBroch’s famous haggis dish certainly won that category, in Ruby’s opinion - but she would have killed for a bit of salt and pepper.

The two women finished their meal and laid out their bedrolls beside each other. At the start of their journey they had slept on opposite sides of the fire, but by now they were close enough friends that they could sleep side by side. Ruby found it comforting to hear Mulan’s soft, sleepy breathing beside her, and on some nights, when Ruby was bold enough, to feel the warmth emanating from her body. Ruby usually fell asleep before Mulan, who seemed to want to make sure Ruby was safely asleep before she awarded herself the same luxury. Tonight, however, tired from the swim lessons, Mulan was asleep nearly as soon as she lay down. Ruby settled herself beside Mulan, and then, in spite of the heat, she inched closer, until her side came into contact with Mulan’s back.

***

The next morning Ruby woke up with something soft and warm beneath her. Momentarily, she thought she was back in her bed in Storybrooke. But no. She had left to seek out her own kind in the Enchanted Forest and had spent the past few months sleeping on the ground, other than a rare night here or there in an inn. But the ground was much harder than this, and it didn’t rise and fall in a lulling repetition. Ruby opened her eyes, squinting a bit in the early morning light and raised her head.

Mulan was lying on her back, still asleep, her head tilted to one side and her mouth slightly opened. Somehow during the night, Ruby had worked her way on top of Mulan, using her chest as a pillow and pressing her arms tight against Mulan’s sides. What was most embarrassing, though, was that Ruby seemed to be straddling one of Mulan’s legs and Ruby was certain that one shifting movement from Mulan would elicit a rather obvious moan from her.

Carefully, she pushed herself off Mulan and rolled to the side, feeling her face grow hot and red despite the fact that Mulan had been asleep the whole time. Ruby positioned herself on her side, with her back to Mulan, blushing furiously. As she did so, however, she felt a strong arm wrap its way around her side and over her stomach, before pulling Ruby flush against her body. Unable to keep herself from grinning, Ruby pushed herself back into Mulan as far as she could, taking Mulan’s hand in her own. They would have to rise soon, to start the day before the sun got too hot, but for now, they were content to simply lie in each other's’ arms.


End file.
